PCB inventory in Russia

According to the data for the energy industry in the Russian Federation, 76 enterprises use electrical machinery and equipment filled with PCBs. Only in 25 regions of Russia PCB-containing equipment and oils are not used: Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Komi, Republic of Ingushetia, Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Archangelskaya Oblast, Sakhalinskaya Oblast, Tumenskaya Oblast, Komi-Permyatsky Orkug, Taimyr Okrug, Chokotsky Okrug, Evenkiysky Okrug, Ulyanovskaya Oblast, Saint-Petersburg and Leningradskaya Oblast, Novgorodskaya Oblast, Pskovskaya Oblast, Kaluzhskaya Oblast, Republic of Kalmykia, Republic of North Osetia-Alania, Permskaya Oblast, Republic of Bashkortostan, Tomskaya Oblast, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Amurskaya Oblast, Magadanskaya Oblast.

The largest number of PCB-containing electrical equipment (ca.20%) is used in power systems of Russia. Approximately the same number of PCB-containing transformers and capacitors (18%) are used in machine industry.  In addition, such equipment is used in the following industries: iron and steel, and non-ferrous (14%), food (meat- and fish-processing, bakeries, flour-milling, cold storage facilities etc. – ca.10%), chemicals (9%), construction (6%), machine industry (6%), gas and oil extraction and processing (6%), manufacture (textile manufacturers etc. – ca.5%), car making (4%), housing and public utility sector (3%), coal mining (1%).

The distribution of PCB-containing equipment in use or ready for use across industries is as follows:

• Power industry: 173.378 capacitors of various capacity in 144 electrical instalments in 53 power plants;
• Oil industry: 2.036 capacitors and 20 transformers of various capacity in 14 facilities;
• Coal industry: 401 capacitors and 2 transformers of various capacity in 8 facilities;
• Gas industry: no electrical equipment with PCB-containing liquids in use.

In total, the preliminary inventory includes the following amounts of PCBs:

In chemicals and petrochemical industry: 525t, with 84% distributed within three regions – Povolzhsky, Central, Volgo-Vyatsky regions; 16% - in the Northern, West-Siberian, Uralsky, Central-Chernozem regions. For such regions as the North-Western, North-Caucasian, East-Siberian regions and Kaliningradskaya Oblast there are either no data available, or no PCBs used in the industry.

In iron and steel industry: 2999t, with 80% located in two regions – the Uralsky and Northern regions; 20% - in the West-Siberian, East-Siberian, North-Caucasian, Povolzhsky, Central regions. For the Northwestern, Volgo-Vyatsky, Central-Chernozem regions and Kaliningradskaya Oblast there are either no data available, or there are no PCBs in use in the industry.

In non-ferrous industry: 89% PCBs are found in the PCB-containing equipment in the East-Siberian region, 11% - in the Uralsky and Volgo-Vyatsky regions. As for other regions, there is either no PCB-containing equipment, or no available data.

In timber industry, including pulp and paper sector: 97% of PCBs are located in two regions (Northwestern and East-Siberian), 3% - in the Volgo-Vyatsky region. As for other regions, there is either no PCB-containing equipment, or no available data.

In machine industry: 77% of PCBs are located in the Povolzhsky region, 20% - in the North-Caucasian and Volgo-Vyatsky regions, 3% - in the Central-Chernozem region. As for the other seven regions, there is either no PCB-containing equipment in the machine industry, or no available data.

All in all, across the chemicals, petrochemical, steel and iron, non-ferrous, mining, pulp and paper, machine industries and others the allocation of PCB-contaminated equipment is as follows: 62% of PCBs are located in just two regions (the Povolzhsky and Uralsky regions), for two regions there is no data available (the Far-Eastern region and Kaliningradskaya Oblast), in the other seven regions the value is between 0.2% and 8.3%.

Based on the data of PCB users acquired from the PCB-producing factories, it is possible to classify PCB-containing chemicals into the following types:

• Plasticizing sovol
• Sovtol-10
• Trichlorobiphenyl (TCB)

The largest amount of PCB are found in insulating liquids, capacitors, and transformers. Below one can see the details of the inventory made in the Russian Federation in 2001-2009: